out of time

This week my laptop finally let me know enough is enough. It wouldn’t type B/b at all which was a real ugger. It had to be replaced, and I ran out of time to write a proper newsletter.

But here’s what I’ve been doing while my old laptop wheezed and got hotter and hotter:

It’s not finished yet, but it’s going to be a big one.

And here’s what else I did while I hooked my rug:

I watched the full ten hours of the Beatles Anthology (Which might go some way to explaining why my laptop was wheezing and overheating…) When not hooking, I’ve been reading Ray Connolly’s life of John Lennon which is balanced and extremely readable although the account of the early years is far more enjoyable than the messiness of the later drugs-and-Yoko period.

[Joan Warburton, pastel on paper, 1946]

I discovered the work of Joan Warburton (1920-96) via Rylett Press which is publishing a book on Louisa Creed’s rag rugs this summer. I know it’s not vastly original art, but there is a freshness and a love of flowers which would make it very welcome on my walls. This pastel makes me think of flowers in the novels of Dorothy Whipple - there are many - which are always lightly but deftly described, in season, and colourful. (I also wrote about Dorothy Whipple on the Persephone Post this week.)

And now, as well as my own name, I can type all my favourite swear words again.

Happy Sunday!